Marquez Harris Digital Stretch Journal Writing STOP : come to end; cease to happen. o The word stop has always been a word that struck me throughout my life. In the classroom, I always used the word stop in essays or other assignments for its literal definition. However, when I am thinking to or trying to motivate myself I always used the word stop as a term for motivation and encouragement. When people tell me to stop because they think that I cannot do something, that word stop makes me keep going and trying to do my best and give my hardest. As a result, I will use that term in my classroom as a way to teach my students that the word stop does not just have to be something that actually prevents you from doing something but actually inspire you to do greatness.
Transcript
Marquez Harris Digital Stretch JournalWriting
STOP : come to end; cease to happen.o The word stop has always been a word that struck me
throughout my life. In the classroom, I always used the word stop in essays or other assignments for its literal definition. However, when I am thinking to or trying to motivate myself I always used the word stop as a term for motivation and encouragement. When people tell me to stop because they think that I cannot do something, that word stop makes me keep going and trying to do my best and give my hardest. As a result, I will use that term in my classroom as a way to teach my students that the word stop does not just have to be something that actually prevents you from doing something but actually inspire you to do greatness.
Reading
I believe that I took more of a “guts” role when it came to class discussions because I love to use examples from my own life so that not only could I have receive the insight and perspectives from my peers but also to help make the topic more relatable and relevant for
them as well. This position just always came natural to me and always felt comfortable. That was my role and made me feel like I was important to the discussion.o In the future, I believe that when I am teaching and
having class discussions that I will take the role of a student and allow the students to take the roles that were presented in the article. I feel like as teachers that we forget that our students can teach us and that we can learn from them so we should always be willing to be the student and teacher simultaneously.
What really stood out to me while listening to the interview of Kate DiCamillo was the part of the interview when she said that she did not want to look back on her life some odd years down the future and think to herself that she should have done something differently.
After listening to my peers discuss the roles that they played in their learning, I came to the conclusion that students do not necessarily play one specific role in their learning. They can be every role there is while also being more than one role at that moment in time. There is also no specific combination of roles that a student must play. A student’s role or roles is best determined by the context of the situation because the student will typically take up the role or roles that is best for them at that moment in time. Therefore, as teachers we should not assign roles to students but rather help them to distinguish which role would be best for them in every situation.
Writing
In the article, Beth Maloch and Randy Bomer brought up a concept called the “fourth-grade slump” in which they discussed a shift in schooling of students from learning to read to reading to learn. I found this point to be really interesting because the students in my second grade placement are already reading to learn about topics that the teachers may not necessarily go into detail about. It is a part of an 80/20 model in which the students are in centers 80% of the day and engage in lessons 20% of the day. This point just illustrated to me that this shift between learning to read and reading to learn is occurring even earlier than fourth grade. Students are becoming independent learners earlier and earlier.
“If we expect our students to write for any number of purposes, we must provide and teach around texts of varying kinds so that they have models and mentors for their own composing.” (Maloch & Bomer, 2013, p.206). I found this quote to be completely true because in order for students to know how to create different texts they must be exposed to varying sorts of texts in order to be able to see and understand how each different type of text is composed and structured. In my placement, students have a wide variety of texts which include books of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, informational, realistic fiction, and etc. Therefore, the students are able to create texts that are fictional or nonfictional. Also most of the students are able to identify differences and similarities between different texts thus displaying the importance of having a wide variety of books in the classroom.
I agree with the point in the article in which the authors claim that students can engage in the inquiry process through a wide variety text and not just “informational” texts. Currently, the students at my placement interact with all types of texts, and each child is able to learn just as much as the child that is reading an informational text. Children need to be exposed to all types of texts in order to be the best readers and writers they can be.
o Benchmark Assessment Conferences allow teachers to gain information about the way a reader’s reading process and how they work through text. These should be given at the beginning of the first couple of weeks because they can guide a teacher’s instruction.
o A true fluent reader is able to demonstrate comprehension of the text, take cues from the text, and take pleasure and
finding the right tempo of the text. Fluency is just not the ability to read the words on a text in an ideal speed.
o Text characteristics is extremely important for teachers to be experts in because understanding a text is more than just being able to get the main idea but rather teachers should realize how important it is that the text requires the reader to think.
Quoteso “Classrooms are full of a wonderful diversity of children;
differentiated instruction is needed to reach all of them.” This quote stood out to me because I wholeheartedly agree that the classroom is full of diversity and this diversity has so much potential to enrich the education of the students. However, it is up to the teacher in the classroom to take all this potential and foster it through his or her lessons and instruction.
o “Reading is far more than looking at individual words and saying them.” This quote struck an accord with me because I feel as though many teachers focus on how many words a child can read or how well a child can read the words. However, I believe that comprehension of what a child is reading is just as important if not more. If a child is able to understand what he or she is reading, that child can create a deeper and more meaningful connection with the text while also grasping a deeper understanding.
Romanceo Currently in my placement, I have been observing my
cooperating teachers as they have been performing running records on several students. They were using the running records to determine if the students should move up a level or needed to move down a level. The teachers were mostly
looking for accuracy and the number of words the students read in a certain amount of time.
Realityo In my placement, I have noticed that my cooperating teachers
base a child’s fluency just based off the rate at which the child reads. They are not necessarily taking into consideration the reading efficiency of the child which also includes comprehension of the text.
Writing
Flora and the Flamingo by Molly IdleStand stiff , stand tallAnd try not to fallStretch like a treeAnd let your arms be free
Move like the flamingo And get low like you’re doing the limboBend but don’t breakThat could cause an acheBut if you may fall Don’t cry into a ballJust come underneath my wingAnd bounce back like a springDry those tears And face your fearsLet the wind be your guideWhile I dance by your sideGrow and grow like a flowerAs we dance together And remember to shine bright like the Sun’s auraThank you for this dance my little Flora.
Reading
In the article, the author discussed that many of the students expressed feelings of anger and dismay after reflecting on their personal K-12 schooling. Most of the students wanted to discuss controversial topics and topics that included critical thinking. I found this to be quite interesting because I realized that many teachers are very contradictive. Teachers want students to be critical thinkers and be able to discuss and analyze controversial topics; however, a lot of teachers do not provide students with such opportunities necessary to engage on controversial topics. This is due to a fear of possibly “opening up a can of worms” and potentially causing an uproar amongst parents. In that case, teachers cannot expect students to engage in critical thinking when they do not have opportunities to do so.
The author discussed a really important idea or concept that I had never really considered before. This concept was called the fear of being wrong, and it essentially referred to the fear that many teachers have when considering teaching critical texts/topics. A large sum of teachers believe that knowledge id predetermined and fixed and is not something that is constantly being constructed. This is very problematic because of this misconception of knowledge many teachers do not want to teach critical texts out of fear of being wrong. Unfortunately, students are being negatively impacted by this because they are the ones who are missing out on the opportunities to grow and expand their knowledge and critical thinking abilities.
I also like the idea of allowing students to be able to emotionally connect with the text. I feel as though that by allowing students to engage emotionally with a text that as teachers we would be allowing our students to develop a deeper and more meaningful connection with the text. This would actually motivate students to critically analyze the text because now the students have an emotional connection with the text.
Vocabulary: the body of words used in a particular language.o Ex. White, cat, flower vs. blanc, chat, fleur
Dialogue: conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movieo Ex. “How are you?”, said Tim. “I am doing great!”,
Writing I thoroughly enjoyed this article so much. I really enjoyed learning
about her experience from struggling to find mentor texts that represented her students to her realizing that daily news articles, the life stories of the students, and the past itself served as the best inclusive mentor texts. The students were able to go from short narratives to thought provoking original pieces of literature of all kinds. I found that the teacher’s idea of comparing and contrasting current news articles and events to events that occurred in the past as brilliant. This allowed the students to critically analyze both the present and the future and even their own personal lives. I feel as though the students were more engaged and learning even more about the world around them even though they were just exploring news articles and other types of texts. They were even able to become producers of knowledge by creating their own pieces of literature to demonstrate what they had learned.
For my children’s book, I chose to read the book Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah and Ian Hoffman. The book was about a little boy that like to wear dresses; the little boy was being bullied because he wore dresses. Throughout the book, the reader can see how the little boy struggles with trying to find acceptance from himself and others. By the end of the book, the little boy is still getting bullied, but he is able to ignore the taunting and be happy with himself.o I loved this book so much because as a homosexual male I
was sometimes bullied because I did not look or dress like a “typical” masculine man. I was able to relate with the character on the many thoughts and feelings he had. Just like his mom helped him be brave and love who he was, my mom did the same thing for me. I also enjoyed the idea of a very
young boy going through this type of treatment because most people neglect that young children get bullied for their sexual identities and other various reasons. There is a growing need for more books that highlight the social injustices that members and allies of the LGBT community.
Social Narrative “ THE ROSE IN THE SCHOOL”
they SAW MY SKIN
KNEW MY NAME
BUT they COULD NEVER DESCIBE ME
BECAUSE I WAS MORE THAN WHO they THOUGHT ME TO BE
I WAS NOT their ORDINARY FLOWER
I DID NOT CRY WHEN their HATE SHOWERED
I WAS A PROUD ROSE
THAT GREW IN THE SOIL OF HIS WOES
Purpose: My purpose for this social narrative is to not blame nor ask for pitty about being a gay black man. However, I do want to let others know that gay black males exist and are people too. These specific types of people are still human but are being treated as if they are not. My purpose is to bring light to some of the experiences that black gay men face and also highlight some of the stereotypes and injustices that we not only endure because we are gay but also because we are black men.
My experience/ What do I know?: That being gay in today’s world is more acceptable, but still is a controversial topic and issue for people all over the world for a numerous of reasons. Personally, being gay is problematic in my family due to religion and the perceptionsl gender roles that are attributed to men. Also, I know that because I am black and gay that many people assume that my father was not in my life which resulted in me being a gay man. I also know that being both gay and black comes with dealing with societal and governmental factors and issues which prevents a lot of black men from wanting to state their sexuality or to be who they are out in public. This has caused a lot of gay black men to live double lives and cheat on their spouses.
What do I want to know?: What does it mean being gay and black on a more larger scale(outside my own experience)? Exactly how has being black and gay affected my own perceptions on myself and others? What are some of the other experiences of gay black men in my city, state, country, and world?
The two reasons that countries are reforming education are economy and culture.
The amount of kids diagnosed with ADHD has increased with standardized testing.
Our schools are outdated and were created for a different time period.
1. Ethos: How credible are you? 2. Pathos: The emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by
appealing to their emotions.3. Logos: the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience through
the use of logic or reason. Elements of surprise Writing through imagery Quotation Anger
Topic- Topic sentence… Say what you believe
Reasons- Provide 3 or more reasons. Why do I believe this? Why would my reader believe this?
Explain- Explain your reasons. Say more about each reason
Ending
One of the main problems that I see in my placement is that the students are not engaged nor enthuastic about the different games and activities in their centers. This is probably due to my school following an 80/20 which means that 80% of the day the students are in centers and 20% of the day the students are in whole group lessons. As a result, the activities in the center become boring and unexciting to the students because the students engage with those same activities every single day. The students get extremely bored which results in them not completing their activities and not producing anymore products in the center. This also causes the students to not be on task which ultimately leads to them disturbing small groups to ask unimportant
questions, arguing with one another, and making other bad choices. My co-operating teacher tries her best to keep the activities updated as best that she can. However, the 80/20 model prevents her from being able to do this because she does not have enough time to make activities that fit the needs of all her students. I can see that a lot of possible instructional time is being wasted because a lot of the time students are just sitting there or not really focusing on learning the content. I believe that if the school changed its model from a 80/20 model to like a 50/50 model the students would benefit more from only being in centers half a day and whole group for the other half or even a mixture of both. The students would be least likely to get bored from spending almost the entire day in centers.
